Author: shawnlucas

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Wall to Wall

Prologue

From the windows to the wall (to wall?),

Till the sweat drops from my….

Well, that’s as far as I can get in that little ditty before things get a little too risque for a “family friendly web page”. Sure, you may argue that me naming “The Stand” as a book I’ve read over and over treads into dangerous territory. However, I kept it clean and anything that people discover from reading the book is the responsibility of Mr. King. So, read “The Stand” at your own risk, I suppose.

Lilodini, Escape Artist

Yesterday, I put “outdoor adventure” in quotes because it was “just a walk with the pup”. Oh my, a quoted phrase follow up to a formerly quoted phrase. This is gonna be good. Trust me. It was. I just hope that I can do it justice. We walked our usual route and made it about halfway. She tied herself around a light pole as she sometimes does. I tried to extract her from that predicament. This is where it goes sideways.

She somehow slipped her lead as I tried to save her. She looked at me. I looked at her. I knew I had 15 seconds, at most, until she realized and took advantage of her freedom. “Lilo”, I said as calmly and non threatening as I could manage. She cocked her head. I repeated her name. She cocked her head the other way. I risked taking a step towards her. Big mistake. The spell broke and she ran across the street, somehow managing to barely be missed by two cars, one coming in either direction.

I sighed. Having experience chasing Reese when he was a puppy, I knew this could take at least a half and hour and might even take all day.

Lilopocalypse, Destroyer of Walks

As luck would have it, a runner approached us and tried to help. At first, she seemed amenable to this kind stranger. Then, something inside her snapped. She either detected danger or wanted to test her newly found voice. She did her new barking at strangers thing that she recently discovered. He looked at me. I reassured him that she is not a threat. He trusted me initially. As the intensity of her barking increased, he reassessed the situation and his part in it and ran for it. She boxed him in a few times, perhaps as a last FU to me and my initial reassurances. Eventually, her short attention span ran out, she got bored, and allowed him to escape.

Resuming her game of chicken with a suddenly busy Main Street. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. But, I live in Orange, Massachusetts. As I’ve been telling people recently, we have Trailhead, Wal*Mart, a brewery, and now a dispensary if that’s your thing. Busy Main Street here is usually the line of busses either dropping off or picking up students from school. This was about 5:30, the usual rush hour for a city. The universe’s sense of humor continued to taunt me.

Spider-Lilo: Homecoming

I tried the old, “Fine, I guess you’re staying here and living here forever.” She smiled. I know people think that dogs can’t smile, but she did. It was one of those sardonic, taunting side smiles that Captain America always gives before saying, “I can do this all day.” As far as I knew, that’s exactly what she wanted. To become a vagrant dog wandering along Main Street in Orange, Massachusetts waiting for unsuspecting people to come along and begging for food and pets.

One of the residents came out of her house with one of those toothbrush treats. I’m sure she heard some of my colorful language and prepared to call the cops on this raving lunatic abusing (note, there was no actual abuse) his poor dog. Proving that she was just being obstinate, Lilo came right over to take the treat and then bolted when we tried to detain her. After another couple of rounds of dodging traffic (she had to have gotten a high score on Frogger), she relented and realized the we had both food and water for her. She allowed me to attach her leash and we walked home without further incident. Oh, we did see the runner from earlier waiting to cross the street, but I slowed my pace to allow him to avoid our tyranny.

The question for today: What do you display on the walls of your home — photos,
posters, artwork, nothing? How do you choose what to display? What mood are you trying to create?

Journal Part 1 – “Wall to Wall (at School)”

I have a memory wall in my classroom. I don’t remember how it started. I’m not sure how I’ve chosen everything to display. I can’t even reliably identify any particular mood that I’m trying to elicit. Is nostalgia a mood? I suppose it can be considered as such. I mean with the social media hashtagization of life, anything can be #MoodAF, right? Well, I’ll let you decide for yourself.

I have artwork from the students (both serious and funny), a Christmas card from two years ago with a poetic quote about Mathematics, a couple of programs from theater productions put on by the school, a thank you card that I received from a student this year, and a memorial card of a student who passed away last school year. See, if nostalgia is a mood, that’s the one I’m trying to elicit with the memory wall.

Journal Part 2 – “Wall to Wall (at Home)”

I actually thought long and hard about how to answer this question for my wall decorations at home. Do I talk about the room I’m currently in and where I spend most of my time? In that case, it is decorated with many pictures of the family. To be honest, that’s how most of the walls in the house is decorated. So, the mood is, again, nostalgia. There is also one of those inspirational sayings on the wall, “May our home know joy, each room hold laughter, every window open to great possibilities.” What can I say? Christine chose the decorations.

If we consider a room that has walls decorated by me, we have to look at the former playroom, then game room, and now Aiden’s bedroom. The walls contain posters from various Marvel properties, the cardboard inserts from Magic the Gathering bundles, miscellaneous treasures from Loot Crate, YuGiOh and Pokemon, and a partridge in a pear tree. As far as I know, that last one is a joke. It could be true. I haven’t looked closely at everything up there.

So, what’s this mood? Your guess is as good as anyone’s. It just sort of matches the chaos of nerditude that circulates in my brain 24/7. Comics, video games, CCG, RPG, board games, miniatures…You can get a taste of that chaos on the main page, if you like.

Epilogue

My choice in wall decorations seem to always want to bring nostalgia alive. I often say that I’m not much for nostalgia, but I’ve amended that as I’ve gotten older. I’m not one for “forced nostalgia”. I don’t like being told that I miss a certain era or brand simply because that brand wants me to spend money. Like when they tried to make Woodstock a yearly festival back in the 90s and the spirits of the old hippies haunted them until the last one ended in violence. Don’t mess with the hippies, Man. But, give me a pack of Magic the Gathering cards, an RPG source book, or emulator to play my favorite old games and you’ll keep me busy for hours on end as I reminisce with my friends via text about how great things used to be.

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Second Time Around

Introduction

I guess “Second Time Around” has a couple of meanings in this post. It’s been about 3 years since I’ve updated this page in any significant way. To be honest, I left it for dead and completely forgot it existed. When my students asked if I had a “blog”, I thought they found the main page. They most likely meant this page because some of them found the Instagram associated with this blog. Then again, perhaps they just wanted to troll me a bit with their questions. Who knows with that bunch?

Rest assured that I didn’t reboot this page simply to talk about my high school students. Instead, I’m feeling inspired once again to get outside and share my experiences. Truth be told, this page probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day again if not for a series of coincidences. Of course, that can be said about much of my life.

Around the time that I abandoned this page, I started a journal. The main purpose of that journal was to highlight the good, assess the previous 3 or so years where depression took over for most of that time, and attempt to reverse the damage caused by that depression. I completed that journal and started a new on this year. I found that I was having difficulty keeping the new journal updated.

So, I searched for a “daily journal prompt” web page. I found one that finally delivered on that promise. Instead of using it to update my paper journal (which sits in my school bag, untouched again for another week), I decided to use it to inspire me to keep this page updated more regularly. Choose an outdoor adventure, I thought, and build your daily entry around that day’s theme. Since I’m on April break this week, what better time to test that theory?

The trick, then, as discussed with Chris about trying to reboot my abandoned YouTube page, is how do I stay inspired once I am back in school and no longer on break? I brainstormed a way to keep the YouTube page relevant by recording retro content on my new 2600 emulator because those games are short and I could generate a ton of content in just an hour of playing. This page, though, requires generally a commitment of at least an hour just for the hike alone. Oh well, cross that bridge (and most likely burn it) when we get there.

Journal Part 1 – “Second (Third, Fourth, Fifth, etc) Time Around – ‘The Stand'”

The theme of today is “Second Time Around” with a prompt of “Tell us about a book you can read again and again without getting bored — what is it that speaks to you?” Anyone who knows me knows that the only answer to this question is Stephen King’s “The Stand”. I first read the book as a teenager. At the time, I also read “It”, “Bag of Bones”, “Different Seasons”, and “Hearts in Atlantis”.

People assumed I was a Stephen King fan. In fact, I only liked those specific books by him. I enjoyed “Bag of Bones” so much, I unintentionally wrote an homage to it with my own book, “Siren Song”. My students, by the way, got me to admit to that book and “From Shadows”. What can I say? They’ve been instrumental in helping me in my journey back from depression. If any of you find this, know that and know that I am eternally grateful to you for your help during this time.

I reread “The Stand” again in my 20s, my 30s, and then listened to the audiobook twice over during my time as a custodian at Northfield Elementary School three years ago. Not once did the book ever bore me. And, so, I answered the first part of the question. What about the second part? What is it that speaks to me?

Journal Interlude #1 – “A Note About Hunter Biden”

Seeing as how politics encroached on every aspect of our lives, half of my potential reading audience just tuned out and started crafting an angry letter to the editor. For those of you who stayed, let me explain. Marc Maron recently interviewed Hunter and I listened to the interview during my “outdoor adventure” today. I put outdoor adventure in quotes because I simply walked around town with the dog and stopped at the post office to pick up a package.

To the point, during the interview Marc said something that resonated. Speaking of addiction, he said, “You don’t want to kill yourself, but you don’t care if you do.” I’m not an addict. That’s damning in and of itself, right? Like being a racist, once you have to defend yourself against addiction, you’ve already lost.

In any case, I made that exact statement more than once during my healing phase over the last few years. I realized that’s exactly what I was doing. I wasn’t consciously trying to kill myself, but the drinking, food, and other poor health habits could have done the job. There are still visits to my doctor open, so who knows? Maybe it eventually will. Sorry, that got dark. Let’s see if I can turn it around.

Journal – “Second (Third, Fourth, Fifth, etc) Time Around – What About ‘The Stand’ Speaks To Me?”

The book starts innocently enough. Frannie Goldsmith lives in scenic Ogunquit, Maine. She and her boyfriend break up. Stu Redman hangs out with his loser buddies at a gas station in Texas. Larry Underwood hits “high bottom” (more addiction talk) and comes crawling back to his childhood home. The characters in the book are more well rounded and I feel like I know them better than many of the people in my own life. King, in the foreword for the extended edition of the book, says, “Often I will receive mail from people asking how Fran and Stu are doing as if I get regular updates from them.” As a frustrated writer, the closest I came to that was my wife asking, “What happens next?” when reading an early copy of my manuscript.

A series of unfortunate events (a book series I also very much enjoy) leads to the ultimate showdown between good and evil and an unlikely hero who saves the day. That sentence feels like one of those “explain the plot of a book poorly” challenges that they have on social media all the time. If I’m being honest, the plot isn’t one of the reasons that I keep coming back to the book. It’s a typical religious allegory. Well, there’s got to be more to this book than the characters, right? Well, actually, uh, no. I’ve learned about myself that I can forgive weak dialogue and flimsy plot as long as the characters are strong.

As a teenager, I lived for the chaos of Trash, Flagg, and Harold. In my 20s, I latched onto the friendship between Tom and Nick. My 30s, with the aforementioned pending addiction issues and suicidal thoughts, Larry Underwood became my avatar in the apocalypse. Most recently, having lived through those (so far) addiction issues and suicidal thoughts, I longed for the “normalcy” of Frannie’s and Stu’s life in Colorado. Like I said, it just hits different each time.

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One Guy *Not* Outdoors

Prologue

I started this page to be journal of all mine and my family’s adventures outdoors. I was good about keeping you all updated through Spring, Summer, and the beginning of Fall last year. Then, a few things happened. First, this was a brutal Winter season. You may find that strange as I’ve mentioned previously that we used to not be Winter people, but have learned to embrace the winter by investing in hobbies for the season. I first got snowshoes, which at least gets us out and gets us some exercise. Christine got me some ice fishing gear last year for Christmas because Liam and I expressed that we’ve had fun doing that in scouts a couple of years in a row.

Well, none of that happened this year. It was a brutal Winter season. I’m not the only one who thinks so. Sure, my demographic might be biased because it is simply family and friends and we often surround ourselves with people just like us, but I can’t count the conversations that I’ve had with people about Winter and how it just wouldn’t let up this year. A few weeks ago, we literally went from 30 degrees to 90 degrees in the span of 24 hours. I know that weather is supposed to be unpredictable, but that’s a bit crazy.

Journal

In spite of winter being long, it wasn’t particularly conducive to the things that we like to do.  There was only one, maybe two, cold stretches that froze over the lake. I know that my friend got out there once to build a small rink for skating. There wasn’t much snow and when there was a good storm, it was followed by cold rain that was just warm enough to turn the snow to slush. This winter was just one of the worst of all possible scenarios. I’m pretty sure that I used “The Shining” references a record number of times.

That’s not to say that the winter was a complete dud. We went to the butterfly conservatory for our new annual tradition. We took advantage of one snowstorm before it melted by going outside and sledding as a family. I already mentioned the ice rink that my friend got to set up on the lake. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to join him on that one, but I can do some updates about the other adventures in between whatever trouble I get into over the next couple of weeks while I’m on semi vacation.

I say “semi” because of the other reason that I haven’t been outside much this winter. In addition to mother nature not cooperating (and that’s her right), I picked up a part time job nights cleaning a local elementary school. Classes in the morning and custodial duties at night left no time for being outside even if the winter had not been so dreary. Apologies for continuing to bring up that point. At least I’m trying to vary the ways that I describe the desolation that we felt for 6 months last year.

What about the weekends, you might ask? That’s a valid point and, in the end, you are probably right. We could have done things on the weekend. Unfortunately, weekends were full of exhaustion and attempts to catch up on sleep to prevent any further exhaustion. Mostly, those attempts were futile. Please understand that all of this is simply explanation. I’m not looking for sympathy from anyone. It just so happens that a confluence of events happened this winter to make this page go completely dormant. I also offer this post as apology.

Epilogue

So, don’t feel sorry for the 1 Guy Outdoors and his family. Sure, the winter was long, but we survived. Yes, we were busy and exhausted, but we survived. Thrived, even. We did get to spend time as a family, but it was mostly indoor stuff like movies and introducing the boys to Dungeons and Dragons. But, those are stories for the main page.

Yes, we survived. We even did a few things outside that I will update on the page in the coming weeks. There was a trip to hang out with butterflies. There was a day spent sledding. Oh, and I didn’t even mention the trip to NYC that we all finally took as a family  a few weeks ago to celebrate the end of winter. There is plenty of content to keep me going for a few weeks even if I can’t get my lazy butt off of the couch for some new adventures. Stay tuned!

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On Trains and Childhood

Introduction

(Note:  This article is also available on the main page.)

I’ve talked on this page recently about how much tradition means to me and our family.  We aren’t bound by traditions, necessarily.  It’s just that when we find something that we enjoy doing, we tend to put it into a routine that becomes tradition from year to year.  One of those traditions is the Hobby Railroad Show at the Big E.  I don’t remember how we discovered it.  It was definitely during Liam’s Thomas phase.  Looking for something to do with a train obsessed preschooler during the long and gray months of December and January, we stumbled on the train show.  It didn’t hurt that it was near my birthday and I don’t often ask for anything for my birthday.

Those first years we went as a family.  It was even as recently as maybe 3 or 4 years ago that all five of us took the trip.  Last year or the year before, it was just the boys and I.  This year, the only one that was able to make the trip with me was Aiden.  Christine made plans for Quinn to do a “Cookies and Canvas” event put on by their school’s PTO.  Originally, Aiden was supposed to join him, but he backed out.  She suggested that he come along with me to the train show since I was a bit upset that it looked like we might not make it this year.  To my surprise, he said that he’d rather do that.

Journal

I started to hedge a bit this morning, saying things like that I didn’t want to pay $20 for two people to go since we used to pay $30 for 5 people to go and trying to push Aiden to go to the Cookies and Canvas.  He held steadfast that he didn’t want to go and wanted to go to the train show.  I finally relented as part of my newly found attitude of saying “yes, and…” when faced with a decision like that.  I’m glad that I did.

It started in the car ride.  When it is just me and one of the boys, I try to find podcasts that they will enjoy, too.  Aiden is a pop culture freak and he likes all of the current music, so I could have gotten away with the radio.  I, on the other hand, abhor most of today’s music, so I compromised with the podcasts again.  I chose the “Playing with Science” episode about soccer and the leftovers of an “Only a Game” episode about Gene Mingo, a football player that I had never know before hearing the episode.

He was only slightly interested in the soccer episode, but it was mainly because he was reading a book.  He did laugh a few times.  However, the Gene Mingo episode hooked him and he flipped off the radio when they reported on Mingo’s accidental shooting of his wife.  We talked about guns and the drugs that led to the accident.  It was a good talk.

After the episode, he agreed that it was compelling.  I told him how I like that show because it isn’t like most of sports media.  Chris told me that he was going to go off on sports media in his latest article and he didn’t hold back.  While Chris has a valid point about WEEI, ESPN, and much of sports media these days, that wasn’t exactly my point when talking to Aiden.  I only listen to two podcasts that qualify as sports, “Only A Game” and “Hang Up and Listen.”  “Hang Up” occasionally gets into the regular stories of the day, but they often give a fresh take.  “Only a Game” more regularly goes off the beaten track and tells compelling stories that I’d have never heard otherwise.  I like that.  Much like the Patriots, sports media just bores me.  I’m glad that Aiden was able to enjoy the show, too.

Aside from the ride, it was nice to have one on one time with Aiden.  I don’t know when the last time that happened.  As the boys get older, they become busier with friends and activities and it becomes more difficult to spend any time with them, never mind hours of uninterrupted time.  It was time that he volunteered, at the sake of spending time with his friends, and that makes it even more valuable.  Aside from that, it brought us together with a common interest.

This surprised me.  Aiden is a “cool kid” in the purest sense of the word.  He wants the latest sneakers, listens exclusively to popular music, wants to be with the in crowd.  I never expected that he would be the kid who became the one most interested in model railroads.  But, here we are.  He said that he really wanted a train set and even had plans for where he would put it.  In talking with Christine, I wondered out loud if it might end up being a Paddington 2 scenario where he eventually gets too cool for them and we’ll be left holding all of these expensive train cars.  But, she said that he asked for one for Christmas last year, but waited until the last minute to do so.

He will grow out of them eventually.  He may come back to them after he’s done with his teenage years and when he has kids of his own.  But, and this goes along with why I went to the train show with him even though I wasn’t feeling it initially, he is interested now.  I want to seize upon that interest and have something that we can have together.  Something that will let us hold on to his rapidly dwindling time as a kid for just a little while longer.

Well, that got a bit heavy there.  Sorry.  The show itself was fun and informative.  As soon as we walked into the first building, Aiden started looking at trains and I mentioned how they weren’t very expensive.  The guy at the booth started talking to us about the different kinds of trains.  I suspect that they don’t get much interaction from people outside of the community.  Other than kids who just want to see the trains, when someone comes in and shows a serious effort to enter the hobby, they go out of their way to explain things and welcome them.  We would do well to learn from that attitude, fellow nerds.

For the rest of the show, I was looking at various types of trains to figure out which one I want to get to let him try his hand at building.  Another couple of people made us feel very welcome and answered our questions.  We ended, as always, and as you may suspect, at a Lego display.  I wondered aloud if they still made the powered Lego trains.  He confirmed that they did, so that might be where we start.

Epilogue

I don’t know the last time that Aiden and I had one on one time that wasn’t interrupted by technology.  It was an experience that I won’t soon forget and hopefully it had the same effect on him.  As I stated earlier, you have kids and they are initially with you 24/7.  They get older and go off to school, meet other people, and get other interests.  You never know when that mythical “Cats in the Cradle” moment might happen, but you know it’s coming.

I’d like to put it off for as long as humanly possible.  We have plans to go to at least one hockey game over the next two weeks before the season ends.  I might just splurge and get tickets to both games because they have a buy one get on free deal going on now.  I think Christine might have gotten it via email because she bought the tickets.  A bit surprisingly (but perhaps not because it was Saturday night and college students have better things to do), the game wasn’t very well attended, so they’re pulling out all of the stops to get people to come.

Well, I’ll take advantage of their misfortune and get some time with Aiden as well.  People tend to only take a look at those around them during times of tragedy.  The Facebook posts “Hold your kids extra tight tonight and tell them you love them” only come after a terrorist attack or tragic fire.  I don’t understand why you wouldn’t do those things each and every night.  We only have a limited amount of time and don’t know when it’s up.  Tell the people you love them every single day and just do the damn thing.

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Christmas and New Years

Prologue

I meant to do this last Monday, but I got substitute teaching jobs three days in a row.  Since my writing priority so far this year has been the main 2 Generations Gaming page, this entry got postponed.  However, it works out because then, in two weeks, I can do my back to school entry.  I’ve done one about Thanksgiving and Halloween.  The last one was about Winter in general.  All of that was done with the plan in mind that this entry would be about Christmas and New Year’s.

Since the 2GG end of the year article followed a more traditional format of best and worst of the year, I wanted to make this one less cliche.  I can’t promise anything as it would appear that I’m becoming the living embodiment of the midlife crisis cliche.  However, I will try to keep the fluff to a minimum.  Let’s see how successful I am.

Journal

Many of my entries last year focused on one theme.  (Cliche alert!) When faced with the second “half” of your life, it is only natural to look at the first “half”.  More often than not, you will find things that you want to change.  At least, that seems to be my attitude regarding all of this mid-life nonsense.  Because that was the theme of last year.  Change.

New Year

I started running to help Aiden finish his Boys on the Right Track 5k.  That first run ended with me limping in pain the entire second half of it and finishing dead last.  Unhappy with that result, I started a couch to 5k program on my phone.  When the final 5k event happened, I was about halfway through my training.  I was no longer in pain at the end.  In fact, I danced a little bit at the finish line.  I did not come in last, either!  While the winter has slowed my schedule some, I had been running the entire 5k distance about 3 or 4 times a week.

I can’t say for certain that my running has kept me from falling into the “winter blues” that I often experience in January and February.  I can only speculate that as the reason. It could be because of the other big change that I made this year.  Then again, maybe it is because of my running that kept me from falling into a funk and leading to my new outlook.  There’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing happening here.

I wrote in my miniature painting (that’s painting war miniatures for you non-nerds out there) article on the main site that I’m not much of a resolutions guy.  That’s true.  I generally don’t make resolutions because (cliche alert!) you often end up breaking them within 2 weeks, feel bad about yourself, spiral out of control, and end up worse than you started.  Instead, this year, I’ve decided to continue to live my life according to the improv credo of “Yes, and…”

I realized recently that’s been my major change.  Instead of being content with putting things off (sometimes until they were no longer relevant or, in some cases, unattainable), I have been doing them.  It sounds like an easy change and, ultimately, it was.  The hardest part was the first few times.  As I said to my wife the other day, “Humans are creatures of habit. Once you’ve established that habit, it is easy to just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Now, all that remains is to get through the next big test.  I start school next week and will start a night time job this week.  I’m teaching 5 classes again, plus a lab, so I’m going to be very busy.  It remains to be seen if I will be able to maintain my writing schedule.  I’ve resigned myself that I won’t be able to write every day, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try.

Christmas

In contrast to all of the change that the New Year brings, it’s nice to have the stability of the traditions of Christmas.  Granted, our traditions aren’t generations spanning rituals or anything.  Also, some of those traditions are currently in flux.  Still, it is nice to have that consistency to welcome you into the season.  Creatures of habit and all.

Every year we visit a festival of trees.  This one is multigenerational.  It started with Christine, me, and my parents many years ago.  Now we go with our kids.  The past two years we have gone to one that they started at Yankee Candle because it is closer and also fun to go visit the store during the holidays.  Similarly, we have gone to a light display almost every year.  We started at Bright Nights in Springfield.  This year and last it was Look Park because they had a model train show, too.

A few years ago, we went to Old Sturbridge Village for their Christmas by Candlelight experience.  It was a lot of fun (and also free) and that brought us back again.  The second time wasn’t as fun because there wasn’t as much snow.  This year, we didn’t even think about doing it because of the arctic temperatures.  So, as I said, there’s some flux to our traditions.  Mainly, Liam is growing up.  For those of you that still believe, I’ll just leave it at that.

My most favorite tradition every year is going to Christine’s parents house for the day of Christmas.  It used to be her aunt and uncle and cousins there, too, with karaoke and laughs until too late at night.  Now that everyone has kids of their own, it has just been us, our kids, Christine’s sister’s family, and her parents.  The laughs are still plenty, but the karaoke hasn’t been as plentiful.  Dinner and appetizers are always the best and this year I spent the entire day lying in their kitchen nook watching a whole season of Holiday Baking Championship.

Epilogue

The New Year holiday brings naturally brings with it change. (cliche alert!) The changing of the calendar from one year to the next makes you think of all the hopeful new possibilities of that new year.  I often denigrate it as the one second holiday and don’t put much stock in the concept of resolutions.  However, this year is different.  I’ve spent most of the last year changing, in fact.  I think and hope that all of the changes are for the better.

Because the things that haven’t changed are pretty great, too.  It may be my new attitude, but this is the first winter break in a long time that I remember as being awesome all around.  The crazy thing about it is that we didn’t do that much during the break.  Other than the usual, we mostly just sat around the house and avoided the cold temperatures.  Though I know it must, I don’t want it to ever change.

 

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Winter

Prologue

I have already written about the holidays.  I will write in a couple of weeks dedicated completely to Christmas.  I will also most likely do a “post holiday” journal in January some time.  However, I wanted to ruminate (perhaps?) briefly on the general overall joy that winter brings me.

Journal

I never used to like winter.  I didn’t actively dislike it either.  Mostly, I just fell into a weird hibernation state for the months of December, January, and February.  Some of the people around me who love and care about me wondered about seasonal depression.  While there might have been some of that as my father apparently suffered from it and depression tends to run in families, I don’t think that’s an accurate description of what I was feeling.

Sure, I had bouts of what you might call the “winter blues”.  It’s hard not to with 3, and eventually 4, other people in the house for days at a time because of cold temperatures and occasional blizzards.  Add in that one of those people vehemently hates winter and the cold and, sure, there were a few moments over the years that cabin fever set in and progressed every now and then to the winter blues that I mentioned earlier.

Generally speaking, I’m a fairly positive and “go with the flow” kind of guy.  As long as there are things to do and places to see, I’m happy.  It has taken some others in the family some coercing to feel the same way about winter.  My conversion started about 4 or 5 years ago when I went disc golfing for serious, for real with our friends.  It was at the Tully course that I visit at least twice or three times every summer now, but that was the first time that I’d actually ever been out to throw discs with the intention of making them into the basket.

And it was in the middle of winter, and there was about a foot to a foot and a half of snow on the ground.  And I loved every minute of it.  I don’t remember if this led to my purchase of snow shoes or if it was one of our trips after I purchased the snow shoes, but they have gone miles (pun fully intended) to helping us come to terms with the fact that it is dark, cold, and snowing 3 to 6 months out of the year here in Massachusetts.

I originally got the snow shoes to inspire us to take more trips during the winter.  They did for a while, but then the kids got too big to carry/drag along in the sled for very long and they started to develop some of their own anti-winter biases that have prevented us from getting use out of the show shoes in that fashion.  Instead, we’ve found that we can strap them on for quick trips into the woods behind our house or through the trails behind the schools near where we live.  We can leave the whiny kids at home (now that our oldest is 13 and able to watch them without much incident) and go out for a quick 30-45 minute hike through the snow.  Admittedly, the trips get old, but maybe we can start to branch out a bit to other local hikes.  Heck, we were even able to slip away for a couple of hours to go to a wine tasting at one of the local inns, so we might even be able to head up to one of the mountains.  We are starting to get our lives back!

Okay, maybe that isn’t completely fair.  Now that the boys are getting older, they are tolerating the cold much better.  Another reason for this general winter post, even though I haven’t had a chance to get out and enjoy the actual winter yet without the specter of holidays, is that we got our first snowfall of the year over the weekend.  We got a bit more today and there is snow in the forecast for the weekend, but no big storms yet.  In any case, January and February are usually our big months for snow, so expect a full report of our adventures in the snow coming in the next month or two.

The reason that I bring up the snow is that the boys, who have mostly been moping around the house on weekends, went outside to play in the snow every single night and they were even out there doing chores and helping out with shoveling and brushing off the cars.  Sure, they ended up coming back into the house fighting and crying, but that’s what having brothers is all about.

Look, I’m not positive that my childhood and relationship with my brothers is typical in any way, shape, or form.  As an adult, I haven’t exactly talked with friends about growing up with brothers.  And, as often happens, that just inspired something inside of me.  I should discuss these issues with friends.  In spite of any of that, I grew up in a house with three boys just like our boys.  There were times that we fought to the point of hurting one another on more than one occasion.  So, at least as far as I know, that’s par for the course as long as they kiss and make up.

Epilogue

Winter is long, cold, and sometimes depressing.  It has taken us a few years to finally come to grips with the positives of the season.  However, we have been able to open our minds and branch out to new and different things.  As a result, winter doesn’t feel quite so depressing.  Sure, it is still long, cold, and dark most of the time.

But, when you can travel back in time to Sturbridge Village and see with your eye and your imagination how things were, it makes me smile.  When you can strap on snow shoes to stomp around in the back yard (either literally or figuratively), it goes a long way to making you appreciate that hot cocoa at the end of the day that much more.

College football and then hockey viewing parties with a friend in his shed or closed porch are a reason to look forward to a random Tuesday or Wednesday near the end of winter when you can smell spring, but can’t quite feel it.  There are other activities that we’ve added to our winter fun as we’ve gone along, but I will save those for the next post when I write about how much I love Christmas.

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The Holidays

Prologue

I started this journal in the early spring and it really got going during the summer months.  The rest of the family are summer people.  They enjoy lounging on the beach for hours at a time.  I’m not a huge fan of the beach, but I have found some things about summer that I enjoy like fishing, kayaking (and fishing, canoeing (and fishing), and attempting to swim across our local lakes.  That last one makes it tough to fish, but I did find and retrieve a rod once while swimming, which was cool.  The point is, while this journal was conceived and nurtured during the spring and summer months and it has helped me to become more comfortable with summer, my absolute favorite time of the year is the 3 month period of October, November, and December.

Journal

After the laziness of summer and the craziness of September, the calendar flips to October.  Everything starts to smell and taste like pumpkin spice.  There are signs that Christmas is just around the corner.  Mainly, people who complain that Christmas is just around the corner.  Speaking of early grinchiness, both Christine and I have recently discovered that Aiden is a bit of a Scrooge.  She tried to listen to Christmas music on her drive to work and he wondered out loud, “Why is this on?!”  I was watching a Chopped episode with him and Quinn and a Christmas commercial came on and he shouted, “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet!”

To be fair, he might have gotten this attitude from me.  It is only recently that I’ve mellowed on the whole Christmas before Thanksgiving thing.  I know that there is Facebook evidence of me chastising Wal*Mart for their early display of merchandise.  My cousin tried to rationalize with me, which obviously never works with a person that is being irrational.  Maybe it planed a seed, though, that has blossomed into my new attitude about the holidays.  Honestly, it is most likely just my antisocial and contrarian attitudes that have turned me around, but we can give Mark some credit, too.

There will be plenty of time for winter and Christmas.  If I’ve learned anything about kids and winter in the northeast, it is that I go from 0 to “Shining” in only a matter of weeks.  But, more on that cheerful transition to come.  This article is about Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Look, I know that Thanksgiving is not technically an outdoor holiday.  Neither was Halloween this year, to be honest, but more on that later.  I include Thanksgiving both because we recently celebrated it and it is one of my favorite days of the year.

I took this picture at the move theater when we went to see Wonder and posted it to the 2GG Instagram feed with the caption “Food, Football, and Family (no matter how messed up)” because that’s what’s great about Thanksgiving.

What’s funny is that this year Christine asked at the beginning of November if it would be stupid to have a turkey dinner so close to Thanksgiving.  While it might have been, I shrugged and decided that it would be worth the risk of ruining actual turkey day.  Aside from the fact that it didn’t ruin anything and we still enjoyed the second turkey a month later, I got the added bonus of cooking my own turkey.  It didn’t quite go as well as I hoped because I undercooked it, but it turned out okay and got me warmed up to get into the holiday spirit.

So, what’s the big deal about cooking my own turkey?  We used to host Thanksgiving and her parents did Christmas.  Ever since learning how to cook at Friendly’s (well, that’s where I refined my skill.  Don’t laugh!), I have taken pride in being able to cook.  Since Thanksgiving is such a big and important meal, I especially wanted to do a good job.  Heck, I even got offended when the topic came up in one of my classes.  A student said that they didn’t even like turkey that much.  I put on my “fight me” voice and assured them that they’d love a turkey that I cooked.  Though ultimately unconvinced, we joked that we should have a Thanksgiving dinner for the class.  All jokes aside, that isn’t happening.  Two turkeys in a month is one thing, but three is a crime against humanity.

So, if I’m so good at Thanksgiving, why have I been demoted?  Well, it is less of a demotion (that’s exactly what someone who was demoted would say) and more “life goes on”.  First, my wife isn’t that keen on hosting.  We have 3 kids.  Her sister and husband now have 2 kids.  Her parents have a house that is much more suitable for hosting company.  Our house is bigger, but they recently remodeled and therefore, their house just flows better for big parties.

And so it is that I no longer am in charge of Thanksgiving dinner.  It’s fine because I usually get a chance to do a turkey at least one other time during the year.  Oh!  One last thing about turkey and then we can get on to candy.  I have told this on more than one occasion.  I picked up the turkey (something in the range of 22-25 pounds, so hopefully it redeems me a bit that I undercooked it) at the local grocery store for 16 dollars.  16 dollars and it fed our family of 5 for 3 meals!  The initial turkey, then soup, and finally turkey melts.  I seriously don’t know why people don’t buy more turkeys.

Okay, on to ghouls, ghosts, and candy.  I mentioned earlier that Halloween wasn’t an outdoor holiday this year.  Most years, we engage our kids in the weird ritual of knocking on someone’s door and then threatening them unless they bribe you to leave them alone.  We didn’t do that this year.  The past few years, it hasn’t been the best in our town for trick or treating.  There’s really only one street that has participated and last year, even that one was dead.  One of our friends had the idea to have a kid Halloween party instead and we were ready for a change.  It didn’t hurt that they live in the town where Christine and the boys go to school, which was hosting a party in the town hall before and that trick or treating has been lame lately.

The party was fun for the kids.  They got to eat pizza, hang out with their friends, make slime, and played party games like mummifying one another, glow stick ring toss, and pin the boo to the ghost.  It was less fun for us, but we did get to act like kids and take the toilet paper that was left over after making mummies and throw it all over the yard.  Unfortunately, that only lasted about 5 minutes or so and the homeowner decided to play adult and make us all stop.

Epilogue

Look, I get that Halloween is a holiday for the kids, and the party was fun, but our kids still wanted to trick or treat.  Christine even took them out after we got home to hit a few of the local houses.  I mentioned that it would be fun to do the party the weekend before Halloween and then trick or treat on the actual night.  The hosts of the party said that avoiding trick or treating was the point of the party.  So, if the party is on Halloween again, we will either miss it or show up fashionably late.  The town does a group trick or treat after the party, so maybe we will go along with that and then hit up the party.

Plus, it was a bit of a controversy that we skipped trick or treating.  Christine’s sister, husband, and kids were disappointed that they weren’t able to go with our boys.  So, we will most likely end up going with them next year.  I just don’t understand why we can’t have the best of all worlds.  Oh well, all the soccer mom magazines tell me that I can’t have it all.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t try.

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Soccer Dad

Prologue

This year has been one of change.  I suppose I could say growth, but I don’t want to be too presumptuous or cliche.  Earlier in the year, inspired by Aiden, I started a couch to 5K routine that is now a (roughly) four times per week habit.  More recently, again inspired by Aide, I coached for his soccer team in our town recreational league.

Journal

Aiden has played soccer since he was in preschool.  There have been changes through the years.  The players have changed as they’ve grown, dropped out, joined other rec leagues, and started to play for their middle and high schools.  Liam and Quinn, for example, both decided that soccer wasn’t their thing.  The coaches have changed with their kids.  Heck, the entire association has even changed from school district funded to parent funded.

Aiden has been ther through it all.  Spring and Fall, every year, he has played soccer.  That means, of course, that Christine and I have been there, too.  We have cheered through heartbreaking losses and thrilling shoot out championship victories.  From 90 plus degrees to spring and autumn rain storms and even the occasional day cold enough for sleet, we have seen every one of his games.

I am a fan of soccer.  Along with hockey and basketball, it is one of my favorite sports to watch.  I only mention this part because I have always been vocal at the games.  I’m not the screaming, abusive parent, but I do like to “help” the kids out as much as I can during the game.  This habit led several other parents to suggest that I coach.  I declined because I know nothing about coaching.  I don’t know how to run practice.  I don’t know how to manage rosters.  I can’t motivate.  So, I continued my position as unofficial assistant coach.

Until this year.  For some reason, when Aiden asked me this year, I finally said yes.  Maybe he caught me off guard and I said “yes” when I meant “no”.  More likely, I hoped they’d say, “No thanks, we are all set on coaches.”  Sadly, they responded that they’d love to have me as a coach.  At least I would get to coach Aiden’s team.  A plus due to familiarity.  Then again, there is the saying about familiarity breeding contempt.

I am happy to report that no contempt was bred.  However, my lack of experience was a definite liability early in the season.  I missed the first practice because of a conflict, then said before our first game to a friend, “I have a pretty good team.  Pretty much just have to point ’em at the goal and let ’em go.”  That proved to be a terrible assessment and we lost our first game 7-1 or something along those lines.

And, so, faced with practice after such a tremendous defeat, I did what probably no other coach would do.  I just let them play.  They passed to one another, took shot after shot at the goal with me playing keeper, and had fun in general.  Recognizing my inexperience, the program director stepped in to save me and my team from myself.  He ran a couple of drills with them.  I tried to remain relevant to the practice by playing defense against them during their offensive drills.

Something seemed to have clicked during that practice.  They played very well in the game following and only lost due to an overly punitive hand ball, as I wrote in my Facebook post after the game.  I started to wonder if we might ever win a game all season.  Quite the change from “point them at the goal and let them go”, for sure.

As the season wore on, I got better about running practices.  I started to recognize what each player’s strengths and weaknesses were.  Practically every single player showed up for every practice and game and they were all dedicated to improving themselves and their teammates.  We finally did win 2 games, I think.  We definitely won once and tied 3 or 4 others.  Our final game before the “playoffs” was a tie against the team that beat us so badly in the first game, so it all came full circle.

I put “playoffs” in quotes because it was only a tournament in name.  I figured out after the 3rd or 4th game that it literally didn’t matter if we won or lost with respects to the playoffs because the match ups were already set.  So, the whole team arrived for the final day of the season with the understanding that all they had to do was win 2 games that day and they’d be champions.

They won the first game 2-1 and played their best game of the season.  They talked to one another, made good passes, worked together on defense, and were supportive.  They lost the second game by the same 2-1 margin, but the game was called (prematurely in my opinion) while we had possession in the offensive zone and were driving to the net.  Oh well, it is only a rec league.  The atmosphere of the day made it that much more fun as parents yelled and cheered for their kids, both teams showed great sportsmanship during and after the game, and it actually made me feel like I was going to miss coaching.

Epilogue

Maybe I should say that it made me feel like I might miss coaching.  In all reality, I probably won’t miss coaching, per se, but it did end up being a fun experience.  I got to meet and work with some great kids that I don’t get to do as much anymore because I’m teaching college.  I got to put my terrible coaching skills into practice.  But, I did learn from my mistakes and will be able to better focus my next team, I’m sure.

During the season Christine asked if I would consider helping out with the winter “skills and drills” season.  Again, caught off guard and meaning to say “no”, I actually said “yes”.  I guess I should thank Aiden for inspiring me to be a better person.  He got me to run.  He got me to spend time coaching and helping kids.  In spite of what my father in law used to say, he’s turning out to be a pretty good kid.

 

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Columbus Day

Prologue

I did a couple of “end of summer” posts a few weeks ago.  One was about my trip to the Heath Fair and the other was about mine and Christine’s trip down the river on a couple of inflatable kayaks.  One was planned for a few months to be an end of summer activity.  The other, the kayaks, came up at the last minute after trying more than once to do it earlier in the season.  However, it worked out because we ended up kayaking during the eclipse, which was cool.  Finally, I did a post about Labor Day, the official unofficial end of summer.

Journal

The funny thing about all of those posts is that they were supposed to represent the end of summer in some way, shape, or form.  However, none of them lived up to the name because summer like weather has continued into last week and it might even push 80 later on in this week.  At the risk of sounding like a damned dirty hippie (Ah, who am I kidding?  I am a damned dirty hippie.) this weather doesn’t feel right at all.  I’ve said more than once that if we are living in a simulation, it feels like that simulation realizes that we screwed up big time and is pushing hard for a full reset.

Ah, a discussion for another time, perhaps.  This latest “end of summer” post comes courtesy of the Cape house that belongs to Christine’s principal.  We stayed there for a weekend over the summer and she invited us to stay again this Columbus Day weekend.  Initially, Christine’s parents were going to go to Emerald Lake (another of my favorite places), but they ended up not going because it looked like rain in the forecast.  So, unencumbered by plans, we jumped on the opportunity to spend maybe one last weekend of the year on our home away from home.  By that, I mean the Cape, not the house.  I don’t want to sound presumptuous.

There were some complications that necessitated a slight altering of plans.  Christine went down with our oldest and youngest on Friday.  Our middle and I had to wait until Saturday afternoon because he had a soccer game and I’m the coach.  More on that next week.  The important thing is that as soon as the game ended, we were on the road to meet them at the house.  We missed almost all traffic, other than a bit of a snag for what looked like a parade of sports cars, mostly Corvettes, near the town where the New England Patriots play.  I have no idea what that was all about, but it was neat to see all of the cars and made sitting in traffic slightly more bearable.

Saturday was just a day for hanging at the house.  We went for a quick walk down to Great Pond with the boys.  We were going to walk more after that, but they don’t have much stamina for a longer walk, so we ended up turning around and going back to the house.  Unable to spend time on the Cape without going to a beach, we went to Coast Guard beach and then visited the lighthouse that was close by.  After that, we went back to the house for the night.  While Christine cooked dinner, the boys and I played a game of Magic the Gathering.  We actually ended up playing a few games and I’m glad to have had some time to play the game and it has me interested in the game again after a several month absence.  In fact, for a while there, I thought I might be finished with the game completely.  Alas, that is a story for 2 Generations Gaming.

After dinner, we watched Captain Underpants with the boys.  Honestly, I’m not sure why.  They had already seen it and neither Christine nor I cared much about the movie.  But, it was a family movie night and it actually wasn’t as terrible as I feared.  After the boys went to bed, Christine and I watched Moonrise Kingdom.  That one wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be, so I guess it was a night of false hope and unfulfilled expectations all around.

We made up for it the next day with a trip back to the National Seashore beach.  The boys swam, in the ocean, 10 days into October.  I even got a bit crazy and hopped in.  I can confirm that, even though the temperature was high 70s, the water was doggone cold.  It wasn’t as cold as up in Maine a few years ago, but it was still a shock to the system.  That night, we overpaid for some chowder, bisque, and stuffies, but heck, it was vacation.  We also made up for the subpar movie night by watching “Gifted”, which was surprisingly very good.

Monday was supposed to be spent driving back.  Instead, it was spent sitting in a gas station parking lot waiting for a AAA tow driver that took over 3 hours to arrive.  By the time he did, the tire place was closed, so we ended up getting one more day on the beach (oh no, how terrible!) instead of going back to work on Tuesday.

Epilogue

We paid for our extra day on the beach with one of those “long” short weeks that are infamous and every teacher will know what you’re talking about if you tell them you’ve experienced one.  But, we all survived the craziness of the flat tire, the subsequent craziness of the week, and are finally (?) ready to face the end of summer.  If only it would actually end.  Christine has mentioned more than once that she doesn’t want to go apple picking when it is so warm.

Well, I will say that it was chilly all day today.  In spite of the fact that the sun was out most of the afternoon, it didn’t warm up like it has.  I’m not much of a summer fan, but this summer has been good for family fun and activities that we normally haven’t done in years past.  I can’t say completely what is different other than attitudes and a willingness to try these new things.

Sure, getting the invite to a Cape house twice in a year when we were willing to give up camping completely helped.  Also, buying the Groupon deal for the kayak trip on a whim came into play.  The boys are showing more interest in things.  That drives what we do and also what we find enjoyable.  So, I’m not a summer guy, but this summer was fun.  Fall is, so far, turning out to be fun, too, but that can’t last.  It’s only a matter of time before we are trapped in the house and trying not to reenact “The Shining”.

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Celebrating the Eclipse

Prologue

I wouldn’t say that I’m a Groupon professional, or even a semi-pro.  We have used it more than once to enjoy a night out at dinner, or to go to the local Barcade for a birthday celebration, or to pretend to be pirates on a cruise through Cape Cod Bay.  I also wouldn’t say that I’m a river kayaking pro, semi-pro, or even a well practiced amateur.  However, both of these things came together when I noticed a Groupon for a local river kayak trip and, without thinking, pulled the trigger.

Journal

I have wanted a kayak for at least 15 years now.  Anytime we go into a sporting goods store, I wander to look at fishing equipment, camping equipment, sometimes hunting, and the kayak aisle.  The last few years, I’ve noticed that our Wal*Mart has been carrying kayaks and I drop not so subtle hints to Christine whenever we are in the store and pass by them.  I bought her a paddle board a couple of years ago in the hopes that it might inspire her to get me a kayak so that we could spend time alone as a couple on the water while the boys hung out together on the beach.  Heck, they are almost getting old enough to paddle themselves in the canoe.  Yes, we have a canoe.  More on that in a bit.

I have been on a kayak a few times.  My brother in law got one a few years ago for his birthday (I know!) and our friends have a couple that they’ve taken us out with them once or twice.  Once, I even got to kayak the disappearing island in Crowninshield, which was awesome!  But, I still do not have a kayak of my own.

I did sort of compromise about 5 years ago and bought a canoe because the boys were all little.  So, we could take them all out on the canoe together with little to no risk of capsizing.  Notice that I did leave open the possibility.  We were all in the canoe as a family on Emerald Lake.  Liam asked if he could jump out of the canoe to swim.  Sure, we responded.  Well, he decided that the best course of action was literally standing up to jump out.  As you can imagine, that ended up with all of us in the lake, swimming to the shore.  Unable to flip myself back into it, I dragged the canoe behind me as I swam.  That was one of the first phones that I ruined with water.  But, at least my wallet only got wet instead of ending up at the bottom of the lake as it did last summer.

What does all of this have to do with Groupon and the eclipse in August?  I already mentioned that, without hesitation, I signed us up for a 2 for 1 deal on a local river kayak trip.  That was in April or May.  I’m not sure.  It was definitely at the end of spring/beginning of summer that I bought the deal.  It got added to the calendar in June, then July, and forgotten both times.  We lucked out and ended up kidless for three days in July, but didn’t go.  Admittedly, we both had to work, but that was only in the morning.  I can’t say for certain, but I’m pretty sure that we could have still made it to the trip in the afternoon.

Whatever the case, we didn’t go on those three days.  Instead, we did what we usually do and put it off until almost the last possible second.  Christine insists that it wasn’t intentional, and I believe her for the most part, but she ended up making the reservation for August 21, 2017.  That’s right.  The day of the (sing it!) “total eclipse of the sun!”  As a result, her parents had to watch the kids.  While dropping them off, her father made a joke about it going dark while we were out on the water.  I replied, as I always do, “Yep, you can have all our debt.”  That got a chuckle and off we went.

During the drive, she admitted to being somewhat nervous because she’s never paddled in any kind of moving water.  Neither have I, but I’m the sort to just take things as they come.  If we end up swept over a waterfall, well at least it happened during the eclipse!  Naturally, everyone was talking about it.  One family, who obviously better planned for the occasion, brought their glasses to view.  Christine and I sneaked peaks at the sun through clouds, doing exactly what we were told not to do.

Luckily, we didn’t damage our eyesight and we can blame our ignorance on the precedent set by our illustrious leader.  After the safety speech and check, as we walked to the bus that was going to take us up river, I noticed that you could view the eclipse in the tinted rear windows of some of the vehicles.  I didn’t think to take a picture, partly because I had to leave the phone behind in the car just in case of a tip.  Initially, I was going to just say “Eff that”. Then, I realized that I was really saying, “Eff me and my expensive phone.”  So, my pictures are only from before even getting in the boat.

As we went down the river and I found myself missing the phone because the views were simply awesome, I thought about getting some sort of waterproof camera for just those adventures.  We also talked about maybe doing the trip again during the fall for the foliage, but that might get filed away as something that we discuss and then don’t follow through.  For my part, though, I’ve brought it up more than once.  So, who knows, maybe we will.

Epilogue

We took the time alone to both remark on the beauty around us and to talk.  We didn’t talk about work or money.  We didn’t talk about kids, but we did both think that they’d get a kick out of the trip.  She did mention how we hadn’t been fighting as much, which is a positive step forward from where we were the past two summers.

Even though this write up comes almost a month later, looking back I see that this trip happened the day after we went to the Heath Fair.  It was the last week of summer for us and we were trying to squeeze in as much as possible, it would seem.  Also, even though this was more of an adventure than our other trips this year, we still stayed close to home, used the time to communicate and show our love for one another.  I would say sometimes, that’s all you need.  But, it should be all you need always.

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